Great • Southern • Hockey

NHL & NHLPA: Out of Touch with Reality

After yesterday’s massive letdown, we couldn’t help but feel, not only bitter and defeated, but utterly dumbfounded by how out of touch with reality both the NHL and players truly are.

We will never fully understand what both sides are dealing with or what’s going on inside their heads, but from the outside looking in (the fans’ point-of-view), it’s nothing more than a bunch of indecisive businessmen who are controlled by the greed of money.

What happened to the love of the game? The reason they are in the positions they are now?

Downhearted from greed; that’s just one of the mixed emotions NHL fans are experiencing along this rocky, blind route we’d like to call the lockout.

Although it would be nearly impossible to have a fan presence during the meetings other than standing outside with picket signs, it would still be ideal that we have a voice in the situation. We are the ones who give you that money to fight over, right?

By our accusation of the league and players being “out of touch with reality”, we just can’t begin to fathom the idea of being that well off monetary wise and still have the nerve to fight over more.

What is that you need so badly that you are willing to put people (who don’t make nearly half of what you do) out of work while you negotiate splitting their hard-earned money? What can you not afford now that you want? I highly doubt it’s something you needbecause nothing materialistic is needed with the kind of money you are arguing about.

Maybe it is because we cannot justify blowing our money on five matching Land Rovers and a Lamborghini that matches our favorite shirt or maybe because we’ve never experienced such luxury. What we can tell you, and this goes for all professional sports entities, is that we hope we never get to the point in our lives/career where we forget about the people who got us to where we are.

This can’t be said for all professional athletes or owners, for most athletes have their own charities and are well-versed in the community. However, as a whole, the NHL and NHLPA have made themselves out to look like a bunch a money hungry jerks with nothing better to do.

So this post is more of a rant than factual based, but wether they truly care or not, both sides are not making friends with fans who don’t understand the ability to fight over revenue when they have enough money already to support themselves and about twenty of their closest friends and family. When you struggle to support yourself and family on one or more jobs, it’s pretty darn difficult to see eye-to-eye with both the players and owners.

This is how the NHL will lose more than just a few games. They are enviably going to lose strong and weak fan bases due to their lack of true connection with the fans that provide then with the revenue that they are currently fighting over.

The NHL is not the NFL or NBA. They do not have the fan base, the time and experience like these two organizations do and they never will if they continue to alienate the people who fund them.

It’s time to take off the rose colored glasses and end this before the fans do.

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